


Aequitas

by Eternal



Series: Aequitasverse [1]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime), Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Faction Paradox - Various Authors
Genre: Gen, Time Travel, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2014-11-07
Packaged: 2018-02-24 10:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 5,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2579135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternal/pseuds/Eternal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hello darkness, my old friend<br/>I've come to talk with you again.</p><p>Saazbaum centric.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dust

Five years spent wasted on a red dust planet.

If you stayed too long on Mars the dust would begin to infiltrate your lungs and drown your hopes. Oh, they put up shiny steel barriers and VERS technology to ward off the barren wasteland, but it was always there coating even the machinery with a layer of grime that couldn’t be wiped off. 

Orlane always told him he’d been too ambitious. It was how he’d been caught and slated for execution in the first place.

He chalked down another day on the wall in the heavy stone prison. For such a technologically advanced society VERS’ methods of punishment were antiquated, none moreso than the prison system which had clearly been inherited from their ancestors. 

The prison warden admitted two people into the dim cell. One short, one tall. 

Saazbaum noted with faint unease the fact that they didn’t seem to cast shadows. Even their heavily cowled faces seemed to be lit evenly. 

‘Count Saazbaum,’ the tall one said. Mockingly.

‘We have a proposal to make to you,’ the other one continued casually. ‘It would be wasteful for a young man such as yourself to have his life cut prematurely short, now wouldn’t it?’ 

Saazbaum snorted. It was an ugly and graceless sound. ‘Did Orlane send you? Or did you come up with the delusions that VERS cares about rankless Martian revolutionaries by yourself?’

The pair swapped a superior glance.

‘We’re just passing through the neighbourhood.’ The tall one twittered. ‘We’re from… a separate colony with similar interests.’

‘How’d you like to become an Orbital Knight?’

Saazbaum indicated his manacles. ‘Clearly you two are able to work miracles,’ he said his voice heavy with sarcasm.

‘Oh, that’s easy.’ The short one gave him a cursory glance. ‘It’s surprising what can be achieved by giving history the right nudge in the right direction. You’d be free from this prison too.’

‘All we want you to do is kill two people.’ The taller one took out an old fashioned pocket watch. From the distance, Saazbaum could see that there was the image of a skull on the face. He put it back in his pockets. ‘It’s easy. The VERS princess and a time traveller known as the Doctor.’

‘You’re absolutely delusional. And I’ve never heard of the Doctor of whom you speak.’

The tall one methodically removed his glove, finger by finger. Beneath it, the tendons were a mesh of robotics. ‘Oh, you will soon. In a little over an hour, anyway, though you won’t need to kill him for more than a few years.’

‘Just make sure you do it properly, his people have … methods of cheating death.’ 

‘And what if I don’t agree to this charade?’ Saazbaum snapped. 

‘Wouldn’t it be tragic if your friend Orlane suffered from a heart attack? Humans are so fragile you know. In one hour fifteen minutes and twenty seconds she’ll be dead because the nurse forgot to administer the aspirin in the IV drip.’

For a moment, the world froze and tilted for a second. ‘No.’ He whispered. These people. Were they even people? And where was the prison warden anyway? He couldn’t see what the short one was doing but the door, impossibly, slid open. 

‘Or you could agree and bring her back. That would be the most convenient option.’

‘I don’t have much of a choice, do I?’ He smiled wanly. ‘I agree.’

‘I wouldn’t worry your human mind about the possibilities.’ The short one said, and grabbed him by both arms until his back hit the stone and all he could see was the soft Aldnoah powered lights in the metal ceiling. The thing, whatever it was, was too strong to fight off and Saazbaum swore he could hear the clicking of clockwork. 

‘What are you doing?’ He demanded, struggling and failing to stand up. 

‘Oh trust me, this won’t hurt at all.’ 

The tall one stabbed two extended metal fingers into Saazbaum’s eye sockets. The martian’s entire body jerked as two fingers came out of the back of his skull with a wet crunch. 

The last thought that went through Saazbaum’s head was that the tall one had been lying when he said it wouldn’t hurt. All he could hear was the clocks.


	2. Aftermath

He woke up screaming in an empty room in an enormous poster sized bed. 

‘Heavens, Saazbaum, someone would have thought you’re dying.’ Orlane walked in. He clutched the sheets like a dying man and as discretely as possible, checked if there wasn’t a hole in his skull.

There wasn’t.

‘I’m fine, it must have just been a nightmare.’ He told her. She hmphed, leaned over and flicked him once on the forehead and walked out.

‘Well I suppose we’ve got Dr Troyard to thank for that. Don’t forget the induction ceremony tomorrow and please show some dignity worthy of an Orbital Knight.’ 

It would be all too easy to dismiss it as a nightmare.


	3. Shadows

The Doctor introduced himself as a Terran ambassador after walking straight into Saazbaum’s study uninvited amongst all the books.

The newly minted Count already knew that the man was there. He'd kept a close eye on the Emperor’s new guest throughout the entire festival and a closer eye on the guest list. Outside, the Martians filled the filthy streets in celebration. 

‘I can already tell we’re going to be the best of friends,’ the Time Lord beamed. His female friend - Anji - was busy looking at the books tidily organised on the shelves. 

Saazbaum shifted uncomfortably and his shadow copied him half a second too late.

The Doctor noticed everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On becoming an initiate in the Faction Paradox the individual loses their shadow. Weapons were also invented including the Biodata Virus allowing the Faction Paradox to rewrite the past of the victim.


	4. Heavenly Blue

A few years later:

This man, Slaine thought, was like nothing he’d ever known. The man – the Doctor mystified him. 

He had all the aristocratic bearing of an Orbital Knight but his blue eyes held no judgement, save a tempered curiosity. The Doctor claimed to be something of a tourist but how he’d actually managed to appear on Cruhteo’s Landing Castle in the middle of a warzone was something of a mystery. His companion, was a dark-skinned Terran female wore a tightly hugging skivvy and jeans, a second dated outfit which contrasted bizarrely with her companion’s. 

Count Cruhteo had wanted to kill them on the spot, but his assessment had slid over Count Saazbaum like a waterfall. The latter had maintained sleekly that they might turn out to be useful ambassadors. 

If they wanted to find the hypothetical First Bountiful Human Empire, then let them. Slaine had orders to turn them over. They were Saazbaum’s responsibility now. 

‘It’s really cold out here, isn’t it?’ Anji asked Slaine. The Earth hung in front of them like a silent blue jewel.

The boy looked out. ‘I think we could divert more energy from the Aldnoah drives but I think Cruhteo prefers it this way.’

‘He’s a man of few comforts, huh.’ She watched the spectacular view silently, the gentle hum of the engines coursing through the ship. ‘You know, I was actually stranded on Mars for four years. Olympus Mons. The view was spectacular even if there was a lot of red dust.’ An apparition of a smile hung around her lips. ‘A lot has changed in that time.’

But that wasn’t right. Slaine was thinking. If there was another Terran on Mars, surely I’d have known, surely I’d have seen her.

‘Time to go, Anji.’ The door opened at the door slid open. 

We’ll be back, the Doctor did not say. He and Anji stepped into the arranged transport capsule which would presumably bring them down to Earth somewhere.

Oddly, Saazbaum looked disaffected. His mind was elsewhere. 

‘Do you know them?’ Slaine asked.

‘It’s none of your business.’ The Count snapped, put his hands behind his back and walked away, unwilling or perhaps unable to watch the unfolding carnage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anji has previously been on a Mars in 'Fear Itself'.


	5. Fire

He was too far away in the centre of the castle by the time that little ship crumpled in fire like magnesium that had been set alight. It burnt as high and bright as Deucalion had the night Orlane had died.

His pact with House Faction Paradox won her an extra five years of life, but at what cost?


	6. Childhood's End

IN THE AFTERMATH:  
Well he shot the Princess, of course. He resented her personally just as much as the Faction had wanted her to kill her.

The dead Doctor sat neatly crosslegged next to the dying man, the tips of his fingers touching each other as if in thought. The Doctor was dead so the Count knew it was just his imagination. 

‘Well that’s all well and good, but what do you think the Faction gets out of it?’ The Doctor said. The dying man smiled.

‘We’re at war. It doesn’t matter.’ The dying man coughed. ‘As long as the Princess dies, we’ll have a reason to invade the Earth. Mars doesn’t have enough food and water. Sooner or later, we’ll run out.’

The Doctor wasn’t smiling. ’The Faction Paradox are also waging a war.’

‘With your people?’ The dying man said.

‘They’re into guerilla warfare. Sell arms to both sides, that sort of thing. Entire civilisations fell in the Second War in the Heaven, you know. A great Time War stretching across the aeons and the whole universe. I’d compare it to Heaven’s Fall except it was bigger.’

‘Fiat justitia ruat caelum. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.’ The dying man smiled ruefully.

‘The Faction planted the Aldnoah technology. Hoped that the Martians would wipe out the Terrans with it. The Earth is as much the ancestral home of the Faction as it is yours so they wanted to reclaim their Empire. The Eleven Day Empire.’

‘An empire neither bountiful nor beauteous.’ The dying man shrugged. ‘I hope that Slaine will do a good job with it after I’m gone.’

The Doctor looked at him sharply. ‘Don’t say that, you’re not going to die. Not if I can help it.’

‘Is that why they call you the Doctor, then?’ But the damned dead Time Lord didn’t respond. In fact, he’d completely disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Time War in the books (The Second War in Heaven) is generally seen as different from the war in the TV Series (The Last Great Time War) however it is heavily implied at the end of 'Gallifrey' in the Audios that the Audio Time War is the same as the TV Time War. For the purposes of all fanfiction, The Second War in Heaven (waged against the enemy AKA Daleks and Faction Paradox) is the same as the Time War depicted in the Audios and in the TV Series (waged against the Daleks)


	7. Unless there's children crying

‘Slaine.’ The Doctor said. He had materialised the blue box inside Saazbaum’s landing castle. Although the internal lighting had been knocked out by the dead Aldnoah drive, the windows of the police telephone box gave off a soft white glow. 

The boy was staring dumbly down the barrel of the gun, like he couldn’t believe what was happening. Bodies were piled up all around him. 

‘I think you had better put that weapon down.’ Anji said cautiously. ‘We don’t mean you any harm.’ She breathed in a small sigh of relief when the blond dropped the weapon and kicked it all the way over to the other side of the room.

‘How are you not dead? I saw your ship go up in flames.’ It had been weeks, but it felt like a lifetime ago when Slaine saw the montage.

‘Well,’ the Doctor said guiltily. He was checking pulses. ‘I materialised my TARDIS inside the ship.’ At the look on Slaine’s face he added hastily, ‘I made the outside a bit smaller than it usually is.’

Slaine’s face creased further in confusion. ‘That blue box? How do you fit in it?’ 

‘Well yes it’s a little bit more complicated than that.’ Anji said. ‘You see, it’s sort of bigger on the inside.’

‘Help me with the Count, Princess and Inaho would you?’

‘They’re alive?’ Slaine’s eyes widened in shock. His hands went for another weapon but the Doctor got in the way first, blocking him.

‘Haven’t enough people already died today?’ The Doctor gestured sadly at all the crumpled bodies. ‘Violence against an injustice doesn’t make a right.’

‘I only ever wanted to protect the princess.’ The boy was close to tears. 

‘Then help me with her.’ The Doctor ruffled Slaine’s hair fondly. ‘Brave heart, Slaine. There’s a good chap. We can only march onwards. One, two, three and all that.’


	8. Caelum

The dead man dreamed of Orlane.

Or rather, he dreamt of the two men – one tall and one short leading her away.

‘It’s really just a Faction mindgame,’ the Doctor said. He was perched on the small stone ledge with his frock coat dangling a bit in the breeze. For some strange reason he had acquired and was now wearing a very long multi-coloured scarf. ‘Going back in time, changing your past so that it fits their whims, it’s exactly the sort of thing they’d do. You aren’t listening to me, are you?’

The dead man felt like pointing out that he didn’t usually take instructions from other dead men with a questionable fashion sense.

‘You remind me of Cruhteo, do you know? Always trying to be honourable.’

The Doctor smiled as the breeze blew a curl of hair into his blue eyes. ‘Is that why you told him to stop torturing Slaine then?’

The dead man looked at the ground, abashed. ‘No, I just knew how it felt. Or at least I thought I knew how it felt. Before, you know.’ He shrugged. ‘In a past life? In an erased time?’

‘It’s always difficult to describe,’ The Doctor observed. ‘Hold onto the person you were. They won’t ever come for you, but they’ll wait for you to decide who you want to be.’

Just when the silence stretched on, the Doctor jumped off the other side of the ledge.

‘Doctor,’ The dead man shouted, because the blue seemed to stretch forever downwards but the Time Lord was Time Lord only raised both arms in the joy of being alive. White birds – doves – flew in a v formation. 

After a moment’s hesitation, Saazbaum jumped in after him.


	9. The Butterfly Room

Asseylum woke to a field full of billion butterflies. The green grass stretched onwards on the hill and further into the mountains and the blue sky adorned by fluffy white clouds raced further into the distance than she would have thought possible.

It was good to be alive. ‘Slaine,’ she said, and found him. He was still snoring on the soft green slope, face half buried in the earth. She poked him a bit more and he stirred. ‘Asseylum? I thought you were never going to wake up. I’ve finally found you!’ They hugged. 

A little up the slope, Inaho was looking at a particularly big blue butterfly who was sitting on the back of his hand, for once his face filled with a tiny thread of wonderment. ‘Papillo Ulysses.’ He said. ‘It became extinct during Heaven’s Fall. For several decades, the last human scientists have searched for this species. It usually symbolises a kind of homecoming, Bat. I’m glad I didn’t kill you and I hope you didn’t suffer as a result of my actions.’ He said, maintaining the same tone throughout.

Slaine acknowledged him stiffly with a nod, but his face ran through a whole gamut of emotions. He finally settled on understanding.

‘Oh come on,’ Asseylum said. ‘Make up, you two. And it’s about time you were formally introduced to my childhood friend Slaine.’

‘Pleased to meet you.’ The boy said, dipping his head. 

They hugged. ‘I really am glad do see you, Bat.’ Inaho said lightly. Then they pulled away. 

‘At first I thought that this place was a realistic simulation, perhaps Aldnoah technology.’

‘No,’ said Anji sounding a little out of breath. ‘Like I said, the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.’

‘Really?’ Slaine looked intrigued. ‘How does it have the sky, water, the mountain and the butterflies and everything?’

Anji winked at him. ‘I personally think it’s an entire ecosystem contained in a pocket universe. Maybe this has co-ordinates in the outside universe, who knows.’ The walked and the butterflies landed, a gentle tickle on their clothing and hair. The Doctor waved at them. The iridescent insects nested in his hair, making his curls bright and colourful. 

A short distance away lay a man on the grass with his eyes closed. The butterflies remained a respectful distance away from him. 

Asseylum ran up to him.

‘Princess, no!’ Slaine cried. All the guilt, all the pain and all the suffering tumbled across his visage. 

‘The pilot of the Dioscuria, no doubt.’ Inaho continued in a toneless voice when they arrived. ‘If she doesn’t remember what happened to her, perhaps it’s best not to tell her or she’ll be upset. Don’t you?’

‘How can you be so calm?’ Slaine asked, ‘When he tried to kill her?’

Inaho didn’t reply.  
It would be easy, Slaine thought, to kill that traitor right here. He still had a knife in his pocket which he had managed to secrete aboard the TARDIS. Still, he itched to use it.

The thing that was stopping him would be the look on Asseylum’s face when he murdered the person who’d betrayed her father and tried to have her assassinated. Inaho would appear expressionless, Slaine knew. Maybe the boy’s hatred ran deep, but perhaps he’d turn his face away from Bat just so he didn’t need to see the blood spilled in their name. Anji… Slaine didn’t want to think about Anji. She’d lost enough people already.

Most of all, he didn’t want to see the Doctor’s face, as he killed the person who betrayed them all, the person who he’d spent so much time tending in spite of the attempted murder. In spite of everything, the Doctor had tried his best, as if he were filling an invisible quota of the universe as a penance. 

Slaine had been foolish enough to ask where the Doctor had come from. It was generally the conversational kind splitting people up into easy binaries. Martian or Earth, that sort of thing. But the Doctor’s entire face had shut down, it was as if all the lights in his soul had simply ceased.

The Doctor had said, a while later, that he had lost his entire planet, destroyed it even. Maybe he was the last of his kind. Maybe that was why he travelled the universe with Anji with the ship - the blue box – his constant companion, in an attempt to fill in that loneliness. 

Slaine knew, deep down, that the Doctor wanted to save people. But Saazbaum was irredeemable. He knew that the man would never change. Maybe he’d try to kill Asseylum again. Could Slaine risk that happening again? 

Yet, looking down, that man’s face looked peaceful. Perhaps that too was a lie. Like the hill and its verdant peace amongst the calamity of war.

‘Count Saazbaum,’ Asseylum said. He didn’t stir. She called again but he simply pretended not to hear. 

But Asseylum wouldn’t give up that easily. She sat next to him. 

Inaho simply looked on neutrally. Slaine envied his peace of mind. It went against all of Slaine’s code of morals and his ethics but he held it in. Breathed in, breathed out and then said again, ‘Princess, Count Saazbaum is the traitor who tried to assassinate you.’

The corners of the Saazbaum’s mouth twitched up in faint amusement. ‘Perhaps you should listen to Slaine next time, eh?’

He tried to get up but Asseylum stopped him. ‘Slaine, Inaho, Anji and Doctor,’ she said, ‘Could I request that you leave?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the same Butterfly Room from the TARDIS depicted in 'Seeing I'.


	10. Partings

‘Why?’ she asked simply. 

Truth be told, he could have tried killing her again. Could have tried blaming it on wacky timelines with some degree of success. Could have made some Slaine-esque statement and sworn never to give up. Could have told her some parts of the story or all of it or just a few select words.

Truth be told, he was just tired. 

So he reached into his clothes and pulled out a gun. ‘It’s surprising what the Doctor missed.’ He muttered. 

She looked at him warily with a hint of betrayal, but wasn’t shocked.

The look in her eyes turned to bafflement when he offered it to her. So he got down on his knees and bowed his head.

‘Count Saazbaum, could you tell me a story, the kind you told me when I was little?’ Her voice only trembled a little, which Saazbaum was grateful for. 

He obliged. It was a fairy tale, the kind he must have told her a hundred times over when he was just an unwilling tutor and she was just a student.

It was utterly peaceful day for dying, just the Count and the Princess, alone in the field full of grass among the blue, blue sky.

The butterflies spiralled overhead in a peaceful lazy loop.

The formation shattered forever when the gun fired.


	11. Doorways

Four agonising hours of wondering whether a murder was taking place in the butterfly room was finally alleviated when Saazbaum and Asseylum trooped into the TARDIS sopping wet. His shoes and clothes were ruined and pooling onto the tiled floor. The Princess wasn’t fairing much better, but he’d draped his jacket over her shoulders.

‘You’ve been crying,’ said Inaho to the Count bluntly, without making eye contact. ‘That’s good. We’ll save some expenses on life insurance and the associated funeral costs this way.’ Now that he was certain that the Princess was safe he was back to his expressionless and methodical self. He dealt out the cards.

Saazbaum said nothing in response. On the table Anji played a 7, which Idaho instantly squashed with an 8.

‘We ended up in the swimming pool,’ Asseylum said by the way of explanation. ‘Was there supposed to be a door out of the butterfly room which wasn’t located at the bottom of the lake?’ She asked. 

‘Well there usually is, but the TARDIS might have moved the doors around.’ The Doctor concluded. ‘I’m not sure the old girl is fond of people using guns on the grass.’ He said meaningfully. 

If possible, Slaine’s face suddenly managed to get paler. He was too busy looking at them to even notice that Idaho had dealt him a hand full of aces. 

‘Could we get a change of clothes for Asseylum?’ Saazbaum finally asked. 

‘Showers are five doors down. Females on the right, males on the left, other genders on the upper floor, eldritch beings from another dimension at the end. The TARDIS wardrobe is sorted by era.’ The Doctor squinted at their clothes. ‘I’ve probably got a few pairs of both of yours.’ He added absentmindedly. ‘Or maybe fifty.’

‘You’d probably want to check out the trunk at the end of the TARDIS wardrobe,’ Anji said, eyes dancing evilly. ‘It’s where the Doctor hides all his clothes. He has some amazing selections including his Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat which he wore in his sixth incarnation. Daily.’

The Doctor squirmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The TARDIS probably isn't too fond of River Song using guns on her interiors either.   
> And yes.  
> Swimming pools.


	12. Solutions

‘This machine must take a tremendous amount of energy to run if we’re travelling through time and space.’ Saazbaum said plainly. 

He took a step forward, half of his face in the shadow.

‘Yes.’ The Doctor said. ‘She does. It’s a little like your Aldnoah drive. Ah, I see that your shadow has come back. That’s a good sign.’ 

While it was true that it no longer flickered around the edges, Saazbaum had a lot more on his mind these days. It was always like this, he’d make one move and the Doctor would make a subtle misdirection. Just this week, the Doctor had insisted that they travel to the Eye of Orion which he said was the calmest place in the universe. There were other little things. Taking them to restaurants. Showed them more peaceful versions of Earth. 

Slaine and Asseylum had lapped it up. Idaho was a little more discriminatory. But Saazbaum had no doubt who the intended audience of the message was targeted at. He understood the Doctor’s reasoning behind it, but still he resented it nevertheless.

His first loyalty belonged to VERS, if the Doctor ever posed a threat Saazbaum knew that he had to kill him. Faction or no Faction Paradox. 

‘If you’ve got a question, feel free to ask,’ the Doctor said. 

The Count was still hovering uncertainly around the, fingering the TARDIS key in the pocket that he had stolen. Saazbaum figured that the Doctor knew, but the Time Lord had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. As was the case with the butterfly room incident. 

‘About Orlane.’ Saazbaum said hesitantly.

‘I can’t, I’m sorry.’ The Doctor was already moving. ‘There are certain laws in time that prohibit that sort of thing.’

That didn’t stop you from saving me, the Count wanted to say. 

‘I understand. I’d like to go back to VERS and make the peace.’ Saazbaum closed his eyes. He felt as defeated as he looked. He hated the Terrans for what they’d done to Orlane, but he no longer felt it was right to give into personal prejudices. 

‘Ahh.’ The Doctor was saying brightly. ‘I think I have just the thing for that. I believe you’ll like it.’


	13. Terraforming

‘It’s a sphere?’ Slaine asked doubtfully. It was roughly the size of his hand and from time to time what looks like streams of light circulated the globe.

‘It’s a terraforming device, actually,’ The Doctor said triumphantly. His curly hair was bouncing up and down. ‘It hacks into the biosystem and makes planets habitable.’ He increased the scanner’s magnification of Mars 100 fold. The borders of the planet jumped to match the size of the screen. ‘The previous inhabitants of Mars probably didn’t use one which was sufficiently concentrated.’

‘Perhaps their resources were stretched.’ Inaho suggested. ‘That’s always that possibility.’

‘Interesting.’ The Count said coolly. ‘And I suppose you kept this from us all this time?’

The next exciting instalment of Saazbaum and Doctor rivalry reaches a thrilling conclusion, Anji thought sourly. It was almost like he was doing it on purpose just to spite them. Or was he really like that? It was difficult to tell with this Orbital Knight. Cruhteo was vehement and wore his heart on his sleeve, but Saazbaum preferred his misdirection.

When the last of them had said their goodbyes and Anji had went, Count Saazbraum was still standing.

‘You still haven’t aged a day since I first met you, Doctor.’

‘Ah, you know, Time Lord and all that.’ The Doctor peered owlishly around at him from behind the console. ‘Not to mention the time travel.’ He was wearing glasses – wire frames with lenses. 

‘No,’ Saazbaum said and paused. ‘That’s not what I mean. Thank you.’ He concluded lamely. He didn’t air any of his other thoughts. He was a strategist, for crying out loud. He was unemotional and distanced, he wanted to know where all his pieces lay and what moves he could make. 

‘You’re always welcome here, you know.’ The Doctor said and pointed at the pocket where the TARDIS key was in the Count’s jacket. The cheeky bastard. Of course he knew. 

‘Were you ever in my mind?’ The Count said abruptly.

The Doctor didn’t look at him. ‘Not consciously, no. But when you got stressed enough, the Aldnoah imprint in your genes start activating. Tried to connect to like minds.’

‘I’m not telepathic.’ The conversation was taking a decidedly weird turn. 

‘You weren’t originally,’ The Doctor’s voice was light. ‘The things that Aldnoah on the other hand do to you are not so easy to ignore. It’d be interesting to see what a few decades of using Aldnoah and will do to your descendants on the other hand. That’s what the Faction Paradox were probably interested in.’

‘You want us to stop using Aldnoah don’t you? Getting the Orbital Knights to just give up the technology has been your prerogative, hasn’t it?’ 

‘Whether you continue to use Time Lord technology is up to you.’ The Doctor was wearing that little smile. ‘Isn’t it ironic that Mars isn’t the only orange planet in the universe?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In much the same way as Aldnoah requires an Activation Factor, Time Lords use the Rassilon Imprimatur allowing access to the use of a Time Travel device.
> 
> Just as if the operator of the Aldnoah drive is killed and the machine fails, so to does a TARDIS if their operator is killed.


	14. Promises

The Doctor had sent them back to a mere few minutes after they’d first entered the TARDIS.

He fingered the TARDIS key still in its pocket. With its deceptively simple design, it was easy to assume that it only fitted an ordinary earth lock rather than a space age time machine. It must have contained some type of proximity sensor because now that the TARDIS was gone, the warmth had vanished and it was now cool to the touch.

Would a meteorite bombardment have even scratched the surface of that blue box, he wondered.

_Look after the princess for me, won’t you?_

Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia was waiting for him on the deck. She’d re-enabled the Aldnoah Drive. ‘Please fulfil your promise and patch me into my father, please Count Saazbaum.’

_Won’t you?_


	15. In the face of destruction

In the audience chamber, millions of rectangles were slotting into place, drawing on light from all corners of the room as the hologram formed. But even the light of the landing castle was dull in comparison to the brightness in that the terraforming sphere held.

Asseylum stared ahead, Inaho with calm certainty. Worries were still gnawing as Slaine’s mind but still he was trying to put on a show of confidence for Asseylum’s sake.

And as for Saazbaum? In the moments as the landing castle shook around him and began to disintegrate all around him, that last piece of paradise, the last cornerstone of plans and the ruins of the last promise, perhaps he felt grief, anger or sadness underneath the smile of defiance.


	16. Houseworld

‘I’ll never get used to this.’ Slaine told Inaho. His lanky form had broadened somewhat over the few months, filled in a little with musculature. 

They were on Gallifrey, homeplanet of the Time Lords. Saazbaum had somehow managed to finagle his way around Rayregalia Vers Rayvers restrictions and enrol them in the Time Academy as off-world students. He’d said that it was a good idea for the four of them – Slaine, Asseylum, Inaho and Rayet – to gain some education offworld but it was quickly looking like a short exile to keep them out of his machinations and to plant agents to deal with and destroy the Free Time terrorism group that the Time Lords were faced with.

All in the nature of good diplomacy. It was no real secret that Count Saazbaum was extremely interested in time technology and the VERS emperor was under his thumb. The man had jumped from acclaim to acclaim over the past few months, accepting full responsibility for the deaths in the war, the cleanup and the terraforming. 

Asseylum had let him take credit to bury the charges against him. Inaho had been firmly opposed. 

‘I know what you’re thinking, Slaine.’ Inaho said in the voice of an instructor. ‘You want to trust Saazbaum because he was nice to the Princess. A few trips in a TARDIS, one reluctant hydroponics gardening festival, a knighting and a few apologies later and you think of him as the family you never found in Cruhteo.’

Slaine winced. Inaho looked stern. 

Then Inaho said in a gentler voice. ‘You’re soft, Bat. You wear your heart on your sleeve, you’re easily convinced of the good side of the human nature. Don’t trust that man because he’ll only break your heart.’

‘But you came to Gallifrey anyway. Even if it lets Saazbaum get neck deep in politics.’ Slaine pointed out. 

Inaho’s look was still a little blank but with Asseylum’s encouragement he was showing a little more emotion. ‘Mars or Earth wouldn’t be the same without you, Asseylum or Rayet. You’re my friends.’

‘What was your reason, Rayet?’

Her scowl deepened. ‘And stay on Mars with the man who killed my parents, what are you an idiot?’ She scoffed. She’d held it in for all of a week while they’d rescued survivors and pulled people out from under the rubble, but even then Saazbaum and his hold over Rayregalia were just a bargaining chip to end the war. The instant he stopped being useful was the instant when her neutral hospitality ended. The reunion with the man who’d killed her family hadn’t gone too well and the shouting match had been heard from one end of the Orbital Knight’s castle to the end of it. 

Maybe Saazbaum had offered to find Rayet’s relatives out of regret. But it was far more likely that he hadn’t want to push his tenuous position with the other Orbital Knights too far. Asseylum’s intervention might save him from the death penalty, but it wouldn’t end a bitter and prolonged blood feud. 

The bodies of Trilliam, Cruhteo and the other dead Orbital Knights had surfaced after the efforts of rescue teams along with key figures of United Earth. All bodies had been cremated together on funeral pyres, Martian and Terran alike. From ashes to ashes, dust to dust as the old saying went. 

Rayet pulled up her hood as a couple of students from the Monan Host walked by, distrustful as always, although Slaine had heard she’d already made a new friend with a Terran by the name of Ace whose exploits with home-made explosives were legendary. 

Regardless of Saazbaum’s motives, though, Slaine had to admit that Gallifrey was beautiful. The sky was orange although it ran through a whole range of colours at various times and the trees were a gentle silver. In the summer, students would come down from Mount Cadon and recite temporal induction equations amongst the red grass. 

He knew that he would lie here looking at the twin suns and dream of galaxies whilst Inaho studied diligently from his datapad and Asseylum conversed with other students.

He was homesick but he knew it was close as he’d get to paradise.


	17. Lies

He knew that he was just getting delusional, but the nightmares had been getting worse since that night. He’d dreamt of little crackles in the night, subtle footsteps in the past. Of Orlane calling him and Heaven’s fall.

But the last nightmare had been the worst. He’d dreamt that he’d walked down into the Doctor’s TARDIS, stolen into the TARDIS with the key he’d taken. Dreamt he’d walked across corridors with walls containing billions of dead butterflies, each evenly spaced and pinned to the reflective white wall like a scientific nailed with brutal precision. Nailed and labelled. Orlane, the White Glider. Slaine, the Mountain Swallowtail. Asseylum, the Monarch. Rayet. Trilliam. Cruhteo. Calm. Inaho. The list went on.

All the people on Earth and Mars. All the people he was now responsible for.

And at the very end of the corridor, an enormous birdwing loomed. He touched the glass. Rayregalia Vers Rayvers.

Nobody knew that the emperor was dead. Perhaps it was just luck that the Orbital Knights relied so much on holograms that Saazbaum could simply project the face of Imperial majesty and the rest of them would be sufficiently awed into submission.

Perhaps it was just luck that a simple illusion using Aldnoah could be used to fool so many people – Terrans and Martians alike.

He’d wanted the title of emperor but now he just felt defeated.

He’d never thought that the crown could feel so hollow.

_Look after the princess for me, won’t you?_

They’d be safe on Gallifrey. He’d decided. The Time Lords knew how to deal with the sorts of things that the Orbital Knights didn’t.

Besides, he didn’t want to see the expression on Asseylum’s face when she found out. It was better that she didn’t know, never knew.


	18. Sombras Que Corta

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT:

_Touch not the butterfly for fear of the ripples on the web of time._

As he micromanaged the day to day affairs of the empire, little by little the lie ate him up. The only physical manifestation was in his shadow. Threadbare, weak.

Maybe he’d last the year. Maybe he wouldn’t. But anyway, before long all he’d be able to hear are the clocks.


End file.
